Lejla
Feminine · “Night”
Lejla is how Bosnian spells Layla, and the j is doing the work an English y would do. The name underneath is Arabic and means night — the beloved of the most famous love story in the Arabic-speaking world, and the subject of one of the best-known songs in English.
How old is the name Lejla?
Lejla first appears in US birth records in 1995 — 30 years ago. The typical Lejla alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 900 people named Lejla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lejla most popular?
Lejla peaked in 2001, reaching #3256 nationally. Today it ranks #5238, 1,982 places below that high. See the whole 2001 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From laylā to Lejla
The story of Lejla
Layla and Majnun is the story: a seventh-century Arabian poet driven mad by a love he could not have, retold by Nizami in Persian in 1188 and afterwards across the whole Islamic world. It made Layla the archetypal beloved from Morocco to Bengal. Ottoman rule brought the name to Bosnia, where Lejla became an ordinary Bosniak women's name. Its American record has a clear cause: the Bosnian war of 1992 to 1995 sent large refugee communities to St Louis, Chicago and Utica, and Lejla appears in the American data from the mid-1990s with a peak in 2001, which is the arrival curve of that community rather than of the name itself.
Meaning
Night
From Arabic laylā, night, or a night — the reading is settled and undisputed. Bosnian and Croatian spell the y sound with a j, giving Lejla, which is pronounced identically to English Layla. The name arrived in the Balkans with Ottoman rule and has been ordinary among Bosnian Muslims for centuries.
How the name formed
- laylā
- Leyla
- Lejla
Related forms: ليلى · Lejla · Leyla · Layla · Leili
Pronouncing Lejla
LAY-lah
Two syllables, stress on the first. The j is a y, exactly as in Bosnian, Croatian and German spelling. English readers meeting it cold regularly say LEJ-la with a hard j, which is the main hazard of the spelling.
Nicknames for Lejla
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1995
- Most girls named
- 200747 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3256reached in 2001
- Change vs 2024
- +4.3%24 in 2025, from 23
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Lejla in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- ليلى in Arabic — transliteration
- Lejla in Bosnian — same name
- Leyla in Turkish — spelling variant
- Layla in English — spelling variant
- Leili in Persian — related form
Lejlas among us
people named Lejla are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 66,969 born in 2025 was named Lejla
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Anthea test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lejla's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Anthea climbed just as high around 1959, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Anthea's path sketches the road Lejla is walking now.
Lejla sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Lejla beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lejla in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, simple and evocative.
- It carries one of the great love stories of world literature.
- It is identical in sound to a name Americans already know well.
- English readers will not guess that the j is a y.
- Layla, Leila, Leyla and Lejla are four spellings of one name.
- The spelling marks the bearer as Bosnian, which is either the point or an accident.
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What they receive
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Lejla
Feminine · #5238 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lejlas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Lejla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lejla in 2025?
- Lejla ranks #5238 among US girl names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lejla?
- About 1 in every 66,969 US girls born in 2025 was named Lejla — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lejla with classmates?
- Lejla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lejla
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Irena#5238 · Esma#5238 · Dagny#5238 · Venice#5238 · Lisbeth#5238 · Loralie#5238 · Alania#5238 · Erma#5238
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lejla? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lejla and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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